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'Moving and eye-opening story of brilliance and bravery, and the fight against bigotry and closed-mindedness' - Daily Mail

'Preserves the important facts while skillfully immersing the reader in the turbulent events of 17th-century Europe ... If Kepler wasn't already your favourite historical astronomer, he will be after reading this book.' - New Scientist

At the dawn of the 17th century, it was believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Yet some men knew that the Heavens did not move as they should and began to believe exactly the opposite – a heresy punishable by being burned alive.

The Sky’s Dark Labyrinth follows the stories of Johannes Kepler – a German Lutheran and the first man to distill how stars and planets moved according to mathematical laws – and Galileo Galilei. An Italian Catholic, Galileo tries to claim Kepler’s success for his own Church, and finds himself enmeshed in a web of intrigue originating from within the Vatican itself. Both men and their families are trapped by human ignorance and terror in one of the darkest, yet also one of the most enlightening, periods of European history.

Stuart Clark’s career is devoted to presenting the complex world of astronomy to the public. He holds a first-class honours degree and a PhD in astrophysics, and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a former Vice Chair of the Association of British Science Writers and space science editor for the European Space Agency. In 2000 The Independent placed him alongside Stephen Hawking and the Astronomer Royal, Professor Sir Martin Rees, as one of the ‘stars’ of British astrophysics teaching. He is a consultant to New Scientist, writes features for The Times, BBC Focus and BBC Sky at Night and is a former editor of Astronomy Now magazine.